Every race has a go-to workout that training can be built around. A workout that builds confidence in the athlete while also providing critical physiological adaptations needed for the goal race. These are the workouts I build training plans around. They are the most important workouts, especially in the later stages.
How to Use These Workouts
The most important advice to keep in mind is that these workouts are not a magic bullet. For instance, you can’t just go out and do the workout for your distance every week for 16 weeks and expect to be in peak fitness.
As in any training, it’s the body of work that is needed. It’s ALL important. But these workouts should be prioritized when they are on the calendar. If you have to cancel a workout for a given week, for example, let it not be this one!
Furthermore, these need to be built up to. Pick a date for the peak workout (differs by distance) and then schedule a similar workout every 10-14 days prior to it.
Now let’s go through each of them starting with the shortest!
The Most Important 5k Workout
5 x 1k at goal pace with 50-90% jogging rest intervals.
I like this one a lot for short distances and have trained using it several times. The 5k is all about improving your anaerobic capacity. This can be accomplished through Vo2 Max intervals which usually corresponds nicely with 5k pace.
Because of the shorter distance of this workout, I think it’s okay to do this one more often than some of the longer efforts. I might work my way up to this one using a weekly workout over the course of 4-6 weeks leading up to a 5k race. I’ll use things like 400’s in the beginning but mostly 800’s.
In the beginning, your work-to-rest ratio might be 1:1, but if you’re able to do a full 5 x 1k at goal pace with 100% recovery, the last step is to shorten that recovery. Get to that point and you’re sure to hit your goal.
The track is a great place for fast 5k workouts.
The Most Important 10k Workout
3 x 2 miles at goal pace with 2-3 minute jogging rest intervals.
Similar to the 5k workout, the goal is to cover close to the race distance (about 6 miles in this case) at your goal pace. The key part is how much rest to include. Too little and you will leave your best race behind you in training. Too much and you’re not going to stress the body enough, leaving valuable adaptation and growth on the table.
Adjust the rest so that by the end of the workout, you feel like you could do maybe another 0.5-1 mile but no further. Use the buildup workouts for this one to gauge what the right rest periods may be.
McMillan Running provides a cool workout progression for this one that I really liked. Try to build up to this workout about 2 weeks prior to race day.
More on 10k training here.
The Most Important Half Marathon Workout
4 x 2 miles at Lactate Threshold pace with 2-3 minute jogging rest intervals.
You may be wondering why the most important half marathon workout is missing half marathon pace. Famous Coach Jack Daniels said that half marathon pace had little to no actual physiological benefit for a runner. In other words, sure, we can do half marathon paced efforts, but we’d improve more if we used either faster or slower paces.
The next faster pace that DOES have a physiological benefit is lactate threshold pace. Lactate threshold pace is slightly faster than half marathon pace for most athletes. It varies in definition for some. To be clear, I’m referring to the pace that one can maintain in an all-out race of about 60 minutes.
Threshold workouts build a lot of strength in a runner, something hugely beneficial for a half marathon. I like to use this one in a marathon cycle as well just because it gives me so much confidence. For a half marathon, I’d aim to hit this workout 17-21 days out from race day.
The Most Important Marathon Workout
8-10 miles easy with 10 miles at goal pace.
There it is! The big bad marathon long run workout. It should be no surprise that the marathon’s most important workout is a long run. And after reading the previous workouts, it should be no surprise that it contains a fair amount of race pace.
Because of how much these long quality runs take out of you, I recommend doing them every 2-3 weeks. It’s also wise to limit the number of these in a cycle to three or four. The good news is that the aerobic benefits you get from these workouts are far-reaching!
The idea with this one is to use the first 8-10 miles to fatigue the legs so that the final 10 miles feels like the final 10 miles of a marathon. I recommend your long run be no longer than 25-33% of your weekly volume. So you may need to adjust the mileage of this one downward if you are running less mileage.
Train Smart
Key workouts are only as helpful as you make them. Use them at the right times. Include the appropriate secondary workouts. Allow yourself to recover (and adapt) after them. Build up to them. Balance them with the rest of your training. Be realistic in your goals. Fuel for workout success. Cover all these bases and you’ll be set up for success in any of these distances.
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